Eggers with more on AA situation

Goodness, the “We hope so” is not at all encouraging. I think Kennedy Brown and Taylor Jones will be game ready, though.

Is it a problem to play up until the 4th or 5th month?

bL0chese - - Why be such a jerk?

I am always concerned about cardiovascular issues in such tall people, but they wouldn't even let her out on the floor if there was a question about it. My though is just let her have her redshirt year and get well - next year's squad will be one for the ages.

FWIW, "We hope so" is almost a verbal tic for SR. Usually it means, "Are you really asking that question?". As in:

Reporter: "Do you feel Joanna's height gives you an advantage on the opening tip?"
Coach: "We hope so."

Let’s imagine we knew exactly what the issue preventing AA from playing this season is. Set aside for the moment that it likely involves private personal medical/health info that is entirely none of our business.

How would knowing that change anything?

One thing that is public knowledge with AA is that she only started playing basketball at age 15.
That means there is likely all sorts of basketball knowledge that is for all intents and purposes instinctual for most players that would not be for AA.
The few videos of AA's team at Ribet I saw did not blow me away from a coaching standpoint, and at Eastside the coaches were likely too busy human trafficking or dodging the consequences of said activity to worry about player development.....
Ergo, she could have a lot of basketball ground to cover. SR is quoted in this article as saying the medical situation was "one component" of the decision making process.

Add up the ground needing to be covered, and the inability to cover any 5-on-5 or contact-oriented coaching/practice for whatever medical reason for essentially the time leading up to and into the preseason, and the red shirt may have made all sorts of sense. Especially since we also very much value academics (perfect APR 3 years running, rivaling Stanford), and every newcomer is already under stress and strain from an academic acclimatization point of view. Note that I am not saying AA has any issues in terms of academics, I am saying OSU values academics highly (perfect APR 3 years running, rivaling Stanford as only Pac-12 schools to ever do that) and obviously makes sure students are succeeding wildly at getting an education (without negatively affecting their health and well being).

Unrelated and perhaps not even pertinent to this thread, my teenage son had mono just a couple of years ago, and aside from dealing with all of the teasing from his family about contracting the "kissing disease", he also had to deal with being held out from physical contact (he was going for a black belt in karate) for 3 months due to the rate at which his swollen spleen subsided. There was a happy ending to that story (black belt in American Kenpo, essentially done with HS, headed to OSU) for him, just as we can all agree that we ardently hope there is a happy beginning to AA's basketball story in the Fall of 2019.

In the meantime, I will note that she seems quite happy and chipper on the bench, seems to be an integral part of the WBB family, looks great during warmups, and might rival Destiny for cheering craziness on the bench after a great Beaver play. So whatever ails her, and its none of my business what ails her, she appears to have a great support system around her to help her through it (and this red shirt decision underscores that we don't have a "win now at any cost" culture going on). Good things happen to good people......

Go Beavers!